An herbicide is a compound which adversely controls or modifies plant growth, e.g., killing, retarding, defoliating, desiccating, regulating, stunting, tillering, stimulating, and dwarfing. The term "plant" refers to all physical parts of a plant, including seeds, seedlings, saplings, roots, tubers, stems, stalks, foliage, and fruits. "Plant growth" includes all phases of development from seed germination to natural or induced cessation of life.
Herbicides are generally used to control or eradicate weed pests. They have gained a high degree of commercial success because it has been shown that such control can increase crop yield and reduce harvesting costs.
Thiocarbamate herbicides are particularly effective in the control of grassy type weeds which interfere with the cultivation of a wide variety of crops, e.g, barley, corn, cotton, lentils, peanuts, peas, potatoes, soybeans, spinach, tobacco and tomatoes. Frequently the effective use of these herbicides requires the addition of an antidote compound.
The most popular methods of herbicide application include: preplant incorporation into the soil; in-furrow application to seeds and surrounding soil; pre-emergence surface treatment of seeded soil; and post-emergence treatment of the plant and soil.
A manufacturer of an herbicide generally recommends a range of application rates and concentrations calculated to maximize weed control. The range of rates varies from approximately 0.01 to 50 pounds per acre (0.0112 to 56 kilograms per hectare (k/ha)), and is usually in the range of from 0.1 to 25 pounds per acre (0.112 to 28 k/ha). The term "herbicidally effective amount" describes the amount of an herbicide compound which controls or modifies plant growth. The actual amount used depends upon several considerations, including particular weed susceptibility and overall cost limitations.
While many herbicides are immediately toxic to a large number of weed pests, it is known that the effect of many herbicides upon important plant cultivations is either non-selective or not adequately selective. Thus, many herbicides damage not only the weeds to be controlled, but to a greater or lesser extent, the desirable cultivated plants as well. This holds true for many herbicidal compounds which have been commercially successful and are commercially available. These herbicides include types such as triazines, urea derivatives, halogenated acetanilides; carbamates, thiocarbamates, thiocarbamate sulfoxides, pyrrolidinones, p-toluidines, and the like. Some examples of these compounds are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,891,855, 2,913,237, 3,037,853, 3,175,897, 3,185,720, 3,198,786, 3,442,945, 3,582,314, 3,780,090, 3,952,056 4,110,105, and 3,257,190.
The side effect of injury to a cultivated crop by various herbicides is particularly inconvenient and unfortunate. Thiocarbamate herbicides can sometimes cause serious malformation and stunting of crop plants. This abnormal growth in the crop plants results in loss of crop yield.
To preserve the beneficial aspects of herbicide use, i.e., to maximize weed control, and to minimize crop damage, many herbicide antidotes have been prepared. These antidotes reduce or eliminate damage to the crop while maintaining or increasing the damaging effect of the herbicide on weed species. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,959,304; 4,021,224 and 4,021,229 and Belgian Pat. No. 846,894.)
The precise mechanism by which an antidote reduces herbicidal crop injury has not been established. An antidote compound may be a remedy, interferent, protectant, or antagonist. As used herein, "antidote" describes a compound which has the effect of establishing herbicide selectivity, i.e., continued herbicidal phytotoxicity to weed species and reduced or non-phytotoxicity to cultivated crop species. The term "antidotally effective amount" describes the amount of an antidote compound which counteracts a phytotoxic response of a beneficial crop to an herbicide.